This aircraft is a Fairchild FC-2, serial number 24. It had a brief and violent life.

It was manufactured 10/28/1927 by Fairchild Airplane Manufacturing Corp., Farmingdale, NY and delivered by air to Los Angeles powered by a Wright Whirlwind J-5, S/N 8142. It weighed 3,600 pounds gross.

On its date of manufacture it was bought by the American Aircraft Corp. (Theodore T. Hull, Pres.), 3rd Floor, Merritt Bldg., Los Angeles, CA. American Aircraft was a Fairchild distributor. The airplane was, “to be used in aerial photography and moving picture work.”

This Fairchild landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield three times. Mr. Hull was the pilot each time. On 11/2/1927 he was carrying a passenger, Frank Shimick. They were enroute from El Paso to Los Angeles. On 5/6/1928 he was carrying three unidentified passengers from Los Angeles to Mexico City, and a week later on 5/15/1928 he was again carrying three passengers, enroute from Mexico City to Los Angeles.

Correspondence from American Aircraft Corp. regarding the airplane’s relicensing in May, 1929 states, “We were using this plane in Mexico on the west coast. About the middle of February pilot Walter B. Hawkins, in taking off at San Blas, caught the wing in a mesquite bush, and the plane nosed over, causing considerable damage.”

There were no passengers on board and no injury to the pilot. American Aircraft sent a man to San Blas to have the plane prepared for shipment by boat from Polobampo to Los Angeles for inspection and decision whether or not to rebuild. American Aircraft was informed that the plane was seized by Mexican rebels who tried and failed to repair it, and carried it, “up and down the west coast of Mexico.” At the close of the Revolution it was reported at Nogales, but American was unable to locate it. American Aircraft suggested to the Department of Commerce to let the license expire, and the registration “1772” was returned to the DOC on July 15, 1929.

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UPLOADED: 6/9/05 REVISED: